Page references are given in square brackets in the translation. All these translations are works in progress and have not been checked for errors or readability. Readers are strongly advised to check the Latin text themselves.

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Friday, 1 July 2016

In October 863, Pope Nicholas deposed Archbishops Gunthar of Cologne and Theutgaud of Trier, and wrote to all the Lotharingian bishops demanding they present their excuses. This is the letter that Bishop Adventius of Metz sent in response (letter no. 8 of his collection). This is a draft translation, comments and suggestions welcome. You can see the MGH Latin edition.

To the most glorious shepherd of the Lord’s flock, the
blessed lord Nicholas, highest and universal pope: Adventius the humble bishop
of the seat of Metz, greetings now and in eternity.

Christ, the Lord God, looking after the flock He acquired
with His own blood with His own accustomed piety, gave to you the dignity of
the highest priesthood. Amongst the many ornaments of spiritual virtues with
which you adorn the holy mother Church in inimitable sanctity, let the holy
dogma of ancient authority shine forth, through which the Christian people,
happily endowed by the effective example of such a father, is able to avoid the
traps of sin and, with God's help, to seize the eternal prize; [220] and may the
discipline of the ecclesiastical order remain inviolate in your times. For
which my Smallness and all those entrusted to me by divine grace, rejoicing
with me, give thanks to Almighty God. And we plead with devoted prayer that
Almighty God may deign to keep your pontifical Highness long unharmed, to the
consolation of your holy Church and of all faithful souls.

The decrees of your most excellent Apostolicity were sent to
us while we were busy with the most savage oppressions of the pagans [Vikings] and
the most intense attacks of perverse Christians, and were hoping to manage the
care of the Lord’s flock according to our Humility’s capacity. I would have
wanted immediately to rush to give a response to them to the dignity of your
Majesty in person, had old age not made me sluggish, and had persistent
ill-health not compelled me often and unexpectedlyto breathe out the spirit. For I would have had great joy of all
reward (? totius meriti) if the
weakness of my health had permitted me to go to the threshold of the apostles
and into your most desired and pre-eminent presence.

But because the pain of gout and my aged limbs deny what I
seek, I commit the measure of my Smallness to the omnipotent God and to holy
Peter and to your incomparable mercy, you who hold the delegation of God and
who resides as the true apostle on the most revered throne of the great prince,
so that I may be succoured by your solace. For if I have been deceitfully
defamed in the sight of your Gentleness as if a supporter of vice, I humbly beg
that you will not disdain to accept in the paternal mood of piety the
explanations of my excuse, not shadowed over by the fog of any lies. These
explanations I have taken care to set out to your Mercy one by one (capitulatim).

Chapter 1. In no way do I accept into the catalogue of
bishops the former archbishop Theutgaud, who up to now has patiently borne the
sentence of his deposition carried out by you according to preceding custom,
and has not at all dared to touch anything of the sacred ministry. But as a very
meek man, he declares that he has foolishly fallen by his own speech, deceived
by the most pertinacious obstinacy of someone else, and setting on the path of
humility and obedience he awaits an opportunity of satisfaction from your pious
generosity.

Chapter 2. I do not count Gunthar, former archchaplain of
the sacred palace, in the list of bishops, nor do I dare to enter into
communion/communication with him and his supporters, since he has made use of
the forbidden office [ie of being an archbishop] and has not feared to treat as
nothing the apostolic excommunication.

Chapter 3. These former primates of the church, with other
archbishops and their cobishops discussed the case of the most pious king
Lothar about his two wives in the presence of your legates in our city, and
took the leadership of our teaching (magistratus).
It is not hidden to your Holiness what they decreed about the complaint of our
prince. By the witness of God with his angels and archangels, I thought that these
things, which were spoken with the agreement of many consuls, were pure and
true. Alone amidst the decisions of the already mentioned archbishops and
bishops at the time, and least in merit and in ordination, who was I to resist the
authorities and judgements of the teachers? I feared that I might in some
respect go against the decretal of Pope Leo, who at title 32 wrote thus:
“Therefore according to canons of the holy fathers established by the Spirit of
God, and consecrated by the reverence of the whole world, we decide that metropolitan
bishops should have the intact rights of their ancient dignity handed down to
them over their provinces”. If they strayed from the rules set down either by licence
or by presumption, I was entirely unaware of it. And so it is written in Chapter
9 of the Council of Antioch [221], ‘It behoves bishops through all the regions to
know that the metropolitan bishop bears the responsibility for the whole
province. Because of that, let all those who have issues in all respects come
to the metropolitan’, and so on.

I know of what happened at the origins of that already
mentioned complaint only by the account of many, by ear and not by sight, since
I was not then a bishop but was busy keeping watch in the temple of the blessed
Stephen the protomartyr [ie, the cathedral of Metz], and was only very recently
sought out from the clergy in the kingdom of my lord (senior) Lothar and elected by the people, and God knows that I took
on the care of the pastoral office not for ambition but because I was canonically
invited. It may be that I was much more trusting in the words of the
archchaplain and the other fathers who were present than they were to me: and
if I perhaps acted naively in some regard, then it remains for me to hasten
back to the teacher of truth. Let your unique wisdom bring out the rule in this
matter, and behold, I am ready to obey the edicts of your authority as if to
God, on Whose behalf you bring it all forth. I rely on your holy and healthy
advice, I humbly submit myself to the yoke of obedience.

For although I am aware of the commotion of criticism raised
against me by some people’s foolishness, no one can accuse me in this matter of
anything except naivety (simplicitas). For I faithfully say “Behold my witness in Heaven, and
my conscience on high”. And the vessel of election says “Our glory, that is the
testimony of our conscience”. And here blessed Pope Gregory writes thus in the
letter to the patricia Theoctista: “in all things”, he says, “that are said
about us outside, we should hasten back to the innards of the mind. And if
someone’s conscience does not accuse him, then he is free even if everyone else
blames him.”

Chapter 4. If the decree of your Authority by the judgement of
the holy spirit determined that the already mentioned metropolitans have been
deprived of all power of the pastoral office for their excessive ordinances and
for their absolution of the anathema issued by the apostolic see upon Ingiltrude
the wife of Boso: then know most truthfully that I was not at all involved in
that absolution, and after I heard by truthful account that she was wounded by
an inauspicious kind of adultery, I have always abominated her like a lethal
poison. I advise everyone not in any way to have communion/communicate with the
excommunicated, if they dare to use sacred things, as the fourth chapter of
Antioch shows, which orders all those communicating with them to be thrown out
of the church.

Chapter 5. I absolutely deny that I am a supporter of the
condemned or that I am seditious, or that I am guilty of plotting or conspiracy.
I declare that I in no way agree with those supporting these things. Rather I
state that in all things and canonically I support the head, that is the holy
and venerable seat of blessed Peter, to whom He gave the keys of the kingdom of
heaven, on which stone Christ the eternal king
built His holy church, against whom the gates of hell will not prevail.

But the sanctity of your Paternity has inviolably decreed
that in no way should the loss of honours be feared on account of rash actions
and of signing things, and that pardon will not be denied, if we take care to
send you our assent in writing whether in person or through our legates. Let
the most generous Sanctity of your pre-eminence know that our legate, who now has
shown you the already mentioned profession and has clarified it with many
words, was delayed because I called our other co-brothers from various places
together, encouraging them to perceive and think like you. Once I had
ascertained the unanimity of them all, then placed at the margins of this
present life I sent to your holy Paternity this legate as a herald, [222] the present
bearer of these letters.

I allow nothing uncertain or condemnable to remain in
me, to whom the dissolution of my own body promises to set out on the path of
all flesh. But I trust greatly in the mercy of the omnipotent God, that he may
concede to me as a sinner the space of this calamitous life, until purged by a
worthy satisfaction, I shall know that the grace of your paternal piety has
been restored to me who seeks it, and I may be congratulated as accepted back
into your fellowship which is worthy to God. For we believe that with the
support of God and of the prince of all the apostle, you, spiritually occupied
in alms-giving and fasting and secret prayers, ought to take care with all your
strength and by divine disposition that the limbs living in the body of Christ
should not perish because of a false deception. Therefore if your Mercy is in
any way bent by my tearful prayers, I humbly beg through the holy and individual
Trinity that, placed in the shipwreck of life, I may deserve to receive from
your holy hand what your gentle master Christ said to some disciples hesitating
before the closed doors, appearing to them and praying “Peace be with you”.

We humbly beg with assiduous hopes and prayers that the
Excellence of your holiness will long thrive unharmed.